Earl Shilton to Waterloo committee members, Rob Crowfoot (left) and Paul Seaton dressed in uniform of the Napoleonic wars era during a history fair event

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An amateur history buff researching his mother’s family tree has uncovered the remarkable tale of three illiterate Earl Shilton men who fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

The finding is particularly fitting as next year sees the 200th anniversary of this pivotal encounter in the Napoleonic wars which heralded the end for Bonaparte’s imperial ambitions.

To celebrate, 5,000 troops, 300 horses and 100 canons will take to the field at Waterloo in the biggest ever reenactment of the clash.

Genealogy enthusiast Paul Seaton has already bought his ticket and is thrilled he will witness the helter skelter of battle as his forefathers did two centuries ago albeit from a safe vantage point.

Before then he and other descendants of the trio, Nathaniel, Samuel and George Almey, have a £7,400 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to spend on bringing the warriors’ story to life.

The seven-strong committee behind Earl Shilton to Waterloo Historical Group hope to put up a monument to the trio in the town, produce a book, arrange oral history recordings and organise a Waterloo day.

Paul, 55, a timber salesman from Wigston, said: “It’s an incredible story, to have three men from the same Earl Shilton family fighting in the same troop at Waterloo, and no ordinary troop either - the Royal Horse Artillery G troop.

“This is one of the most written about troops of the campaign because they continued to fire their guns in the centre of Wellington’s line where the fighting was heaviest despite the Duke ordering them to retire back. They stood firm and caused huge casualties.

“G Troop was commanded by Captain Alexander Cavalie Mercer, the man who disobeyed Wellington and whose journal of the conflict is still in publication today.”

Being in such renowned company, however, did not make the Almeys easy to discover. Paul began his research following the death of his mum Eva Seaton, nee Almey, whose family he knew originally hailed from Earl Shilton.

It was a topic he had meant to look into long before, having delved into his paternal history already, but had never seemed to get around to. The sad loss of Eva spurred him on and soon enough he came across Nathaniel Almey, his great-grandfather three times removed and another Almey, Samuel, who in newspaper reports were both cited as being at Waterloo.

Yet there was nothing in the Waterloo medal roll about Nathaniel and Samuel, only a George Almey was mentioned. Despite a number of naysayers, Paul was positive there was a link and armed with information that Samuel had joined the Royal Horse Artillery he, his daughter Sarah and another descendant, David Woolerton from Market Bosworth, went to the National Archives at Kew in November 2012. The first of many visits.

Studying the paylist for G Troop for July 1815 they noticed two bombardiers, Nathaniel Omey and Samuel Omey, who was down as sick, listed next to each other. This fitted in with evidence of Samuel being severely wounded in the battle.

Paul said: “It seems our difficulty in tracing the trio was all to do with the local dialect. In Earl Shilton Almey is pronounced as Ormey and I’m pretty sure 200 years ago with the accent being even thicker it would have been easy to record the surname incorrectly.

“And since none of the three could read or write the mistake continued. Only George had his name spelt correctly for whatever reason.”

The discovery has really caught Paul’s imagination and he has given a number of talks on the subject to local groups with more sessions lined up. David has also spread the word, visiting local schools.

Paul said: “I’d never done anything like that in my life, stand up and speak on a subject in front of a group of people, and initially I was nervous but when I got into it I loved it.”